Staneski on Unfunded Mandates: 'We're Not a Hartford, Nor Are We a Greenwich'

What are some other important issues for you in Milford?

There's no secret that United Way is one of my loves in supporting young non-profits and small non-profits.

I truly believe that if we put dollars in early, into early childhood education and early prevention then we yield that later and we don't have the dollars spent there. 

I am running for State Rep, so when you talk about State issues, one of the biggest pieces that we found sitting on the Board of Education, as well as being a Board of Alderman, are the unfunded mandates that come back to us that we wind up having to roll into our budgets.

That they'll say 'Every town or city needs to do this'?

Yes. And then they outline and tell you how they want it done, and maybe that doesn't fit this community.

We're not a Hartford, nor are we a Greenwich and so what we do in our community, really--I believe in local control. I believe in local control of the education system. 

I believe in smart growth. I believe that rather than somebody in Hartford telling you how to grow--growth means jobs--let the people who are here at the local level do that.

And the same with education. I found that when we were sitting at the table with our respective unions, and there are many of them on the education side, then when you started having the conversation about the kid in the middle, everybody made the right decision. 

And everybody made decisions that were good for the employee, good for the student, and good for teaching. Which is what, really, we're supposed to be doing--not half the stuff that Hartford and the Federal Government has out billing out and doing. 

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There will be more from our conversation with 119th District Democratic Candidate James Maroney in Milford Patch on Tuesday, September 18th.